INTERVIEW: Goal was pretty special

United manager Greg Abbott spoke to us on the team bus on the way back up to Cumbria to give us his reaction to the 1-1 draw with Crawley Town on Tuesday night.

“We wanted a reaction after what was a difficult game in terms of the result on Saturday,” he said. “We felt a little bit hard done by but we didn’t want that to affect us, and I think the lads have worked hard to make sure that didn’t happen.

“We started slowly but I thought we did well to turn that round. We dug in and we started to win the second ball, and that changes the approach for everybody. We saw a team that really wanted to win the game, but credit to Crawley because they went about it in the same way. In the end we have come away with a point which was thoroughly deserved.”

“It’s all about results at this stage of the season,” he admitted. “Performances are important but we saw on Saturday that you don’t always get the result you deserve. When that happens you have to make sure you keep doing things properly and, if we keep playing the way we have in these last two games, then we will keep picking up points.

“I think there were times when we weren’t happy with this performance but the lads have kept going. Defensively we have looked solid again and that’s a huge plus for us. We’ve seen blocks and tackles and a real edge to the way the team wants to defend its goal. We probably didn’t create as much as we did against Notts County but there were good things to take from it again.”

“We’ve picked a team we thought could do a job,” he said. “Brad Potts and Mark Beck are working hard and they are getting better and better all the time. Pitch time adds to that and they will learn from every appearance they make.

“They’ve both worked hard and the formation we had worked for us in patches. Crawley started well and we thought we might have to change it, but we imposed ourselves and we scored the goal when we were having a really good spell. We’re very pleased overall because we’ve had to put a real shift in.”

“The goal from JP [McGovern] was pretty special,” he agreed. “He’s tried a couple of those in recent weeks and I think he spotted the keeper edging out and getting ready to deal with a cross. He caught it really well and it’s one he’ll be very pleased with, and rightly so.

“You never like to concede and we could probably pick out the moments where we could have done more to stop their goal. We kept trying to win the game though and that’s exactly the reaction we want. I think we can look right across the team and see performances from players who are really giving everything at the moment. That’s all we can ask for.”

“We’re coming off the back of two fairly long trips now but that’s part and parcel of the game,” he said. “We’ll do our best to look after the players to make sure they are bright and sharp for the Brentford game on Saturday. The lads are used to it, they look after themselves as well, so it won’t really bother them too much.

“We’ve got a lot to feel encouraged about with the way we’ve played since the Walsall game. If you get performances like this then results will follow and our aim is to keep the work rate up to make sure that is what is happening.”